Central Jakarta District Court Spokesperson: Decision On Election Issue Has No Permanent Legal Force

DOC. VOI

JAKARTA - A spokesperson for the Central Jakarta District Court (PN Jakpus) Zulkifli Atjo said that the decision in the civil lawsuit filed by the Adil Makmur People's Party (Prima) does not yet have permanent legal force (inkrah).

"This case is an ordinary civil lawsuit, so the procedural law for this decision does not yet have permanent legal force," said Zulkifli at the Central Jakarta District Court, reported by ANTARA, Thursday, March 2.

The panel of judges who tried the civil lawsuit No. 757/Pdt.G/2022/PN Jkt.Pst decided the General Elections Commission (KPU) not to carry out the remaining stages of the 2024 election.

The lawsuit was filed by the General Chairperson of the Prima Central Leadership Council (DPP) Agus Priyono and Secretary General of the Prima DPP Council Doweeks Oktavianus Tobu Kiik as the plaintiff against the KPU represented by KPU General Chair Hasyim Asyari as the defendant.

In their decision, the panel of judges stated that they accepted the plaintiff's claim in its entirety, stated that the plaintiff was a political party that was disadvantaged in the administrative verification by the defendant, and punished the defendant to not carrying out the remaining stages of the 2024 General Election since this decision was pronounced and to carry out the general election stages from the beginning for approximately 2 years 4 months 7 days.

"I have not seen whether the KPU has declared an appeal. However, I have seen in the media that the KPU has stated an appeal. Of course, from today, counting 14 days, the defendant must file an appeal if he does not agree with the decision. After that, we will wait for the appeal decision. " said Zulkifli.

Zulkifli also rejected that the decision was deemed to have ordered a postponement of the 2024 elections.

"I don't mean it like that (postponing the election), no, so please (media) colleagues interpret it. However, the language of the decision is like that, yes, delaying the stages. So, colleagues, if you interpret postponing the election, I don't know, the ruling is not to carry out the remaining stages of the election," said Zulkifli.

Zulkifli also said that the lawsuit was different from a lawsuit between political parties because it was a type of civil lawsuit regarding an unlawful act.

"So, the district court has decided on such a case, in each case there are two parties who are given the opportunity to file legal action if they disagree, including the KPU," said Zulkifli.

The panel of judges stated that the KPU had committed an unlawful act.

"To sentence the defendant (KPU) to pay material damages of IDR 500 million to the plaintiff. Declare that the decision, in this case, can be carried out immediately (uitvoerbaar bij voorraad). Stipulates that the cost of the case will be charged to the defendant in the amount of IDR 410,000.00," said the judge.

The reason given by the judge was that there were legal facts that had proven that an error condition had occurred in the Political Party Information System (Sipol) due to the quality of the tools used and/or factors outside the tool itself when the plaintiff had difficulty submitting repairs to party participant data politics into Sipol.

"This means that the defendant determined that the status of the plaintiff did not meet the requirements (TMS). Of course, such a situation is an injustice. Therefore, the defendant as the responsible organ must be held accountable for the material and immaterial losses suffered by the plaintiff," said the judge.

Moreover, Bawaslu Decision No. 002/PS.REG/BAWASLU/X/2022 in essence instructs the KPU to provide the opportunity for the Prima Party to improve the document on the requirements for the distribution of political parties for candidates to participate in the election.